The Land and Water Division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is having a busy year.
In June it published a 200-page report on Climate Change, Water and Food Security. It’s also responsible for The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources, an FAO/Earthscan book to be published later this year and currently the subject of busy promotion at the World Water Week in Stockholm.
The key question is whether the controversial bits of the climate change report have made it into the book. These concerned the scientific potential of GM technology to develop drought-resistant maize for Africa and the very different potential of scaling up organic farming.
The FAO report was resolutely negative on both counts. If neither high-tech nor low-tech farming can deliver global food security, we need some convincing that the middle ground can deliver the goods.
******
this post was first published by OneWorld UK